Location Description:

Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa finally brings his groundbreaking Japanese-via-Peru/nouvelle Californian cuisine to the Beach. Skip the good but not unique main dishes and normal sushi in favor of must-not-miss specials like Matsuhisa's signature black cod with miso, often imitated but never better than here; tender rock-shrimp tempura topped with spicy creamy sauce; arctic char, an especially moist and delicate salmon/trout relative; "new-style sashimi," a Matsuhisa invention for raw-fish-phobes (hot olive oil is poured over the thin slices, retaining the raw fish's tenderness but seeming, psychologically, "cooked"); and sashimi salad -- barely seared tuna atop a mountain of especially fresh mesclun, dressed with a subtly sweet/salty ginger-soy vinaigrette. For other good bets, ask servers, who are superfriendly and superinformed -- a miracle in attitude-filled South Beach.